JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

Today is the anniversary of the marriage of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese de Lisieux. I unfortunately missed their feast day which was yesterday, but nonetheless I would like to give a brief review of their lives and how their vocation in marriage was the vehicle that God used for their sanctity and that of their children.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that matrimony has as its purpose, "the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."⁸⁴ Furthermore, we are told that "The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws. . . . God himself is the author of marriage."⁸⁷ The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator.

Louis Martin and Zrelie Guerin were able to realize the beautiful purpose and higher calling of this sacrament, through their union which was defined by a deep spiritual life, both individual and as they raised their daughters within their home.  Before meeting one another at a later age, both had pursued religious life unsuccessfully, and despite this continued to foster an active and focused prayer life. 

Louis, at the age of thirty-five, worked at who the watch-maker’s shop in the Rue du Pont Neuf and the Pavilion.  His mother met Zélie Guérin at some professional sewing courses, and was impressed with her solid qualities combined with her gentle manners and pleasant presence.  Was this not the wife of whom she had dreamed for her son?  She made overtures to her that perhaps she could meet her son, and eventually succeeded in overcoming her doubts and resistance.

"Shortly thereafter, Zélie Guérin was crossing the bridge of Saint Léonard she met a young man whose distinguished appearance, dignified bearing and reserved manner made a favourable impression on her.  At that same moment an inner voice murmured: “This is he whom I have prepared for you”.  The identity of the passer-by was soon revealed to her.  She learned to know Louis Martin.

 

The two young people did not take long to learn to appreciate and become fond of each other.  Their mutual moral harmony was so quickly established that their private engagement was sealed by a formal religious betrothal without delay and three months after their first meeting they were able to be united together before God.  On the 13^th July 1858, they plighted their troth in the splendid church of Notre Dame.  The Abbé Hurel, Dean of Saint Léonard, who had doubtless lent to the project the support of his authority as a spiritual director, received the vows of the pair.  The ceremony took place at midnight as quietly as possible, as though to enjoy only the sacred Christian aspect of the event; perhaps also because the great works of God are accomplished in the night silence and this was a work of greatness from which was to be born the Saint of Lisieux.

 

The house in the Rue du Pont Neuf had been hastily arranged to receive the newly married couple.  As it was large and had a private entrance, it was possible for two families to live there quite separately and that without encroaching upon the space taken up by the workshop and the jewellery business.  Louis’ parents were installed on the first floor.  Zélie transferred her business to her new home.  She lived there close to her own people, since only a short section of the main road separated her from the Rue Saint Blaise.

From this happy union ultimately nine children were born, four of whom died in infancy (two boys and two girls).  All five surviving sisters became nuns, four of them Carmelites, among them the great St. Thérèse (the Little Flower) and one, Léonie, became a Visitandine." (Excerpts taken from http://www.sttherese.com/Louis%20and%20Zelie.html)

This beautiful excerpt is taken from a paper written for the 150th anniversary of these blesseds written by Fr. J. Linus Ryan, O Carm. in his paper The Human Charm of Christian saintliness.

Louis and Zélie were luminous examples of married life lived in faithfulness, in welcoming life and in the education of their children.  A Christian marriage lived in an absolute confidence in God that could be proposed to families today.  Their marriage was exemplary, full of Christian virtues and human wisdom.  Exemplary does not mean that we should copy, photocopy their life reproducing all of their doings and gestures, but that we should use, like they did, the supernatural means that the Church offers to each Christian to carry out his vocation to saintliness.  Providence wanted their Beatification to be announced during the celebrations of the 150^th anniversary of their marriage, 13^th July 2008.

 

In what way are the Martin parents modern?  Can they help our families to take on today’s challenges? 

Vocation in a family

 

Vocation is, above all else, a divine initiative.  But a Christian education favours a generous response to the call of God: It is in the heart of the family that parents should be for their children by their words and their example, the first announcers of the faith, and they should favour vocations in everyone and in a special way the consecrated vocation [CCC, 1656].  So if the parents do not live the evangelical virtues, young men and young women cannot hear the calling, understand the necessity of the sacrifices and appreciate the beauty of the goal to be reached.  In fact, it is in the family that young people experience evangelical values of the love that is given to God and to others.  They must be educated to understand their responsibility in their freedom, to be ready to live, according to their vocation, the highest level of spiritual realities. [John Paul II, Vie consecrate].

All of the Martin children were welcomed as a great gift of God to be given back to God.  The mother, her heart broken with pain, offered to Him her four children who had died at an early age.  The father offered to Him his five daughters, on their entry to the convent.  For their children they not only suffered the pain of physical birth, but also the pain brought on in faith until Christ was formed within them [Galates 4, 19].

They were truly ministers of life and saintly parents who engendered saints; they guided and educated saintliness.  The Martin family, like the family in Nazareth, was a school, a place of learning and a place of preparation for virtue.  A family who, today, will become the landmark for each Christian family.

Let us pray that those of us who are married can take these gems and example and apply them to our own vocation as husbands and wives. We ask the Holy Spirit, Our Lady, and St.Joseph to further intercede for us as well.

  

Let us pray...

God Our Father, I You for having given us Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of St. Therese. United and faithful in marriage, they have left us an example of Christain living and evangelical virtue. In raising a large family through trials, suffering and bereavement, they put their trust in You and always sought Your will.

Deign, Lord,to make known their will i n their regard and grant the favour I ask, in the hope that the the father and mother of St. Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face, may soon be canonised and thereby held up to the Universal Church as model for the families of our time. Through Christ Our Lord, Amen

St. Teresa of Jesus of the Andes shows us how to Love

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

St. Teresa of the Andes became the first canonized Carmelite saint of Latin America. Juanita Fernandez Solar was born at Santiago, Chile on July 13, 1900. From her adolescence she showed great piety and devotion to Christ. She entered the monastery of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns at Los Andes on May 7, 1919, where she was given the name Teresa of Jesus. In less than one year, she died after having made her religious profession. She was beatified by John Paul II on April 3, 1987, at Santiago, Chile, and proposed as a model for young people. She is the first Chilean and the first member of the Teresian Carmel in Latin America to be beatified. St. Teresa of the Andes was canonized on March 21, 1993 in St. Peter's Basilica. (See http://www.carmelitesistersocd.com/who/teresaofandes.asp)

Testimonies leading up to her beatification and canonization are telling of what a joyful soul Teresa (nee Juanita) shared with everyone she met.  Her enthusiasm was infectious and her desire for souls and union with God would take her to the heights of sanctity in a short period of time.  Her brother Luis affirms that Teresa saw God in the smallest of events and in all people who crossed her path. From an early age she practiced great charity by giving to the poor and teaching catechism to children in the different villages that their family would stay at for the summer. All of her actions stemmed out of a deep prayer life that sought to bring her own soul and those of all other souls closer to Christ. 

Despite some supernatural favors early on, especially after receiving Holy Eucharist, Teresa found only dryness and aridity in prayer. Doubt and confusion clouded her mind and heart as she discerned entering the Carmelite Order at Los Andes, even though she received great consolation and affirming light when visiting there. Despite this, she felt a natural attraction to the order and shared what she believed to be the heart of the Carmelite order and charism as founded by St. Teresa of Avila, to her friend who was still in the world and discerning entering the order

"He'll give you the strength and grace you need to be a Carmelite. May Jesus, in that desert of love, find a place of refreshment in His Isabel. May He find amidst the darkness of the world, a fire of love in your pure heart. How great your mission is, my dear little sister. But it's also a mission that requires continuous struggle. Embrace the cross that your Divine Spouse places upon your shoulders with all your soul. He considers you to be strong, even virile,, since He's giving you a cross - a very heavy one to be sure - but it's because God loves you infinitely. Thank Him for so great a good."

"So..let's be Carmelites, but in the full sense of the word. It's the greatest vocation, since Our Divine Master told Mary Magdalene, "You have chosen the better part." The most Holy Virgin was a perfect Carmelite...A Carmelite, as I think of her, as nothing but an adoring victim. Let us be victims, dear Isabel,  hosts, but pure ones. Let us live completely immersed in God.  (Letters of St. Teresa of the Andes, p. 228)
“My Jesus, I love You. I am totally Yours. I give myself completely to Your divine will. Jesus, give me the cross, but give me the strength to carry it. It matter not whether You give me the abandonment of Calvary or the joys of Nazareth. I only want to see You contented. I doesn’t bother me to be unable to feel, to be insensible as a rock, because I know, my sweet Jesus, that You know I love you. Give me the cross. I want to suffer for You, but teach me to suffer by loving, with joy and with humility.

Lord, if it please You that the darkness of my soul becomes deeper, that I not see You, it will not bother me because I want to fulfill Your will. I want to spend my life suffering to make reparation for my sins and those of sinners and so priests will be sanctified. I do not want to be happy, but for You to be happy. I want to be like a soldier so that at every moment You can dispose of my will and preferences. I want to be courageous, strong and generous in serving You, Lord. You are the Spouse of my soul. ”
Copyright 1989, God the Joy of My Life, translated by Michael D. Griffin, O.C.D. Teresian Charism Press Holy Hill 1525 Carmel Road Hubertus, WI 53033 USA

Blessed Pope John Paul II confirmed this great love that burned in St. Teresa's heart during her canonization Mass in 1993. "This young virgin of the Andes today proclaims the beauty and happiness that comes from a pure soul...In the bosom of her family she learned to love God above all things. In feeling that she belonged to the Creator alone, her love of neighbor became more intense and definitive. ..She teaches us that happiness is found in being the least and the servant of all, following the example of Jesus who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life in ransom of the many."

May we follow her pure, loving example.

St. Teresa of Jesus of the Andes..Pray for us. Amen.

Correction on Carmelite Saints of Guadalajara, thoughts on defending religious freedom

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

Dear Ones-

As I was pulling up information on more recent martyrs and defenders of the faith in connection with our current Fortnight for Freedom, I came across more information concerning the martyrs I spoke of in connection with the movie For Greater Glory and the Mexican persecution of the 1920's. I realized that I had the wrong Guadalajara in mind! These martyrs were from Spain. The information relating to this is as follows:

Spanish Martyrs (1936-1939): After the Spanish Civil War broke out on July 18, 1936 the Church suffered one of the fiercest persecutions of her history. The number of Catholic victims under the Spanish Republic included: 13 bishops, 4,184 priests, 2,365 male religious, 283 nuns, and thousands of ordinary faithful. John Paul II beatified the first Spanish martyrs, three Carmelite nuns from Guadalajara, in 1987. In the following years, up until May 1998, another 231 Spanish martyrs were raised to the altars by John Paul II. Still other beatification causes for martyrs of the Spanish Civil War are underway in the dioceses of Madrid and Valencia.

My apologies for this confusion on my part.  I think many of us are pondering the price that so many Catholics have paid throughout history to defend their religious beliefs and the right to freedom of conscience, which the US bishops have asked us to pray for during this special time of the Fortnight for Freedom.  There are so many inspirational figures that truly move me in considering the union of love that these men and women had for the Crucified Christ and for their fellow neighbors as they bravely gave their lives to defend their Catholic faith.  Amongst these are three Carmelites of interest: St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Fr. Jacques Bunel (Père Jacques de Jésus ), and Blessed Titus Brandsma (O'Carm). 

I would like to share the inspiring story of perhaps one of the lesser known Carmelites of the past century. His name is Père Jacques de Jésus (1900-1945).

Lucien Bunel was born in France on January 29th, 1900 and was ordained a priest in July, 1925. As a diocesan priest Lucien gained a reputation as a fine preacher and teacher. Kind, generous, hard working, and self-giving, his students called him "il santo".

Two and a half years after his ordination, Father Lucien contracted typhoid fever. During his convalescence, he felt an attraction to monastic life and realized his independent spirit needed a strict Rule of life. His friendship with a community of Carmelite Nuns, and inspired by the writings of St. Therese of Lisieux, Lucien decided to enter Carmel.

In 1931 entered the Discalced Carmelite Father and became known as Jacques de Jesus. In time he was appointed director of a progressive boys' school at Fortainebleau.

Angered at Nazi policies, Père Jacques made the boys’ school in Avon, France, a refuge for young men seeking to avoid conscription for forced labor in Germany and for Jews. In January 1943, he enrolled three Jewish boys - Hans-Helmut Michel, Jacques-France Halpern, and Maurice Schlosser - as students under false names. He also hid a fourth Jewish boy, Maurice Bas, as a worker at the school; sheltered Schlosser's father with a local villager; and placed the noted Jewish botanist, Lucien Weil, on the school’s faculty.

Informed of the Carmelite friar’s activities, the Gestapo seized Père Jacques and the three Jewish students on January 15, 1944. Weil, his mother, and sister were arrested at their home that same day. On February 3, 1944, German authorities deported the boys and the Weil family to Auschwitz, where they perished. Père Jacques was imprisoned in four of the most dreaded Nazi camps.  After long days of forced labor, he continued his priestly ministry preaching of God's love and mercy. He gave away not only any extra food but the small allotted portions. He was ever mindful of those more needy than he.  After the liberation of the prisoners of Mathausen in 1945, he gave up his seat in a transport truck and walked three miles to the nearest hospital.  Three days later, suffering from tuberculosis and weighing only 75 pounds, worn out from his imprisonment, Pere Jacques died.
In 1985 the Israeli Holocaust remembrance center, Yad Vashem, posthumously honored Père Jacques as one of the "Righteous Among the Nations." Two years later, French filmmaker Louis Malle paid tribute to his former headmaster in the film, "Au revoir les enfants."

The cause for Père Jacques's beatificatroin is still open.  I leave you with the following beautiful quotes that he left us with to inspire us to always do the will of God regardless of the price, and to protect the rights and dignities of all when the state is in direct opposition to the truth that we are all created in the image and likeness of God, and possess a natural right to exercise our religious freedoms which include freedom of conscience in all spheres of life. 

When asked why he had disobeyed the laws against sheltering Jews,
"I know of only one law, that of the gospels and of love."

Other quotes:

"We cannot hear the voice of God, who speaks without words, except in silence."

"Our life must be a constant, silent prayer that rises unceasingly to God. That is what constitutes our duty in life."

We cannot see Christ and remain as we are. We cannot exchange a look with Christ and not be overcome with a total conversion. (See http://perejacques.org/bio.html for more information).

Other sources used: http://www.byzantinediscalcedcarmelites.com/page21.html
 

Fr. Doug's Homily on Love and Mercy

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ!

Now and Forever!

Dear Ones -

Fr. Doug gave an inspiring homily on the pure love of Jesus and Mary as we commemorated their feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady. Please enjoy a recording of this below, and let us incorporate this pure love each day into our own lives. Amen.

Grow closer to Our Eucharistic King with Bl. Maria Candida of the Eucharist

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

Maria Candida dell'Eucaristia (1884-1949)

It is no conincidence in the divine economy, that Bl. Maria Candida's Memorial is celebrated very close to the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. She had a deep reverence and love for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and found all of her spiritual strength and unitive prayer tied to this most holy of Sacraments, the very summit of our Catholic faith. I wish to share with you the homily preached by Bl. Pope John Paul II at her beatification, and additional information provided by the Vatican website. May it inspire you and strengthen you on your journey! 

Background Information:
Maria Barba’s family home was in Palermo, Sicily. However, Pietro Barba’s work as a Judge in the Appeal Court took the family briefly to Catanzaro in Italy and it was there that Maria Barba was born on the 16th January 1884. The deeply-religious family returned to Palermo when she was two years old.

From the age of fifteen Maria felt called to Religious Life but her family strongly opposed this; she had to wait for twenty years before she could fulfill her calling. During these years of waiting she suffered interiorly but showed a remarkable strength of spirit and fidelity to her calling, unusual in one so young. Her trials were to last until she entered the Teresian Carmel, Ragusa, on 25th September 1919. During this time she was sustained by a special devotion to the Eucharist, in which she saw the mystery of the sacramental presence of God in the world, the concrete symbol of His infinite love of humanity, and the reason for our trust in His promises.

Her love for the Eucharist was evident from the very beginning. “When I was still a child she testified, and before I was old enough to receive Jesus in Communion, I used to rush to the front door to greet my mother when she returned from Mass. There I stood on tiptoe to reach up to her and cried, “I want God too!” My mother would bend down and softly breathe on my lips; I immediately left her, and placing my hands across my chest, full of joy and faith, jumping for joy I would keep repeating: “I have received God too! I have received God too!” These are signs of a vocation, for one who is called by God’s free and gratuitous will as a gift for the Church.

From the age of ten, when she made her First Holy Communion, her great joy was to be able to receive Communion. From then on, to be deprived of Holy Communion was for her ’a great and painful cross’. In fact, after the death of her mother in 1914 , she could only rarely receive Communion, so as to not offend her brothers who would not allow her to go out on her own.

Maria entered Carmel and took the name Maria Candida of the Eucharist, which in certain aspects was prophetic. She said that she wanted “to keep Jesus company in the Eucharist for as long as possible.” She prolonged the time of her adoration, especially every Thursday, when from eleven to midnight she would be before the tabernacle. The Eucharist really dominated her entire spiritual life, not so much for the devotion, as for the fundamental effect it had on her spiritual relationship with God. It was the Eucharist that gave her the strength to consecrate herself as a victim to God on 1st November 1927.

Maria Candida fully developed what she herself was to describe as her ’vocation for the Eucharist’, helped by Carmelite spirituality, to which she was attracted after reading Story of a Soul. The pages in which St Teresa of Avila describes her own particular devotion to the Eucharist are well known. It was in the Eucharist that the saintly Foundress experienced the mystery of the humanity of Christ.

In 1924 Sr Candida was elected Prioress, a position in which she was to remain, except for a brief period, until 1947. She established in her community a profound love for the Rule of St Teresa of Jesus. She was directly responsible for the expansion of Carmel in Sicily, making a new foundation in Syracuse and helping to secure the return of the male branch of the Order.

On the Feast of Corpus Christi during the Holy Year of 1933, Mother Candida began to write what was to become her little masterpiece, entitled The Eucharist, “true jewel of eucharistic spirituality”. It is a long and profound meditation on the Eucharist, which had as its goal a record of her own personal experiences and her deepening theological reflections on those same experiences.

She saw all the dimensions of Christian life summed up in the Eucharist. Firstly, Faith: “O my Beloved Sacrament, I see you, I believe in you!... O Holy Faith. Contemplate with ever greater faith our Dear Lord in the Sacrament: live with Him who comes to us every day”. Secondly, Hope: “O My Divine Eucharist, my dear Hope, all our hope is in You... Ever since I was a baby my hope in the Holy Eucharist has been strong”. Thirdly, Charity: “My Jesus, how I love You! There is within my heart an enormous love for You, O Sacramental Love...How great is the love of God made bread for our souls, who become a prisoner for me!”

As Prioress, Mother Candida, acquired from the Eucharist a deep understanding of the three religious vows which can be seen in a life that is intensely eucharistic. Not only their full expression but also a concrete way of living, a kind of deep asceticism and a progressive conformity to the only model of every person’s consecration, Jesus Christ who died and rose again for us: “Which hymn would we not sing in obedience to this Divine Sacrament? And what is the obedience of Jesus of Nazareth compared with His obedience in this Sacrament for two thousand years?” “After having taught me obedience how much He talks to me, instructs me in Poverty, O Sacred Host! Who is more naked, poorer than You...You have nothing, You ask for nothing!...O Jesus, let religious souls long for sincere detachment and poverty!” “If You speak to me of obedience and poverty..., what a spell of purity You have over me just by Your glance. Lord, if Your home is in pure souls, who is the soul that relating with You does not become such?” From this came my goal: “I want to be close to You through purity and love”.

The model of a eucharistic life is, of course, the Virgin Mary, who carried the Son of God in her womb and who continues to give birth to him in the souls of his disciples. “I want to be like Mary,” she wrote in one of the most intense and profound pages of The Eucharist, “to be Mary for Jesus, to take the place of His Mother. When I receive Jesus in Communion Mary is always present. I want to receive Jesus from her hands, she must make me one with Him. I cannot separate Mary from Jesus. Hail, O Body born of Mary. Hail Mary, dawn of the Eucharist!”

For Mother Maria Candida the Eucharist is a school, it is food and an encounter with God, a coming together of hearts, a school of virtue and wisdom. “Heaven itself does not contain more. God, that unique treasure is here! Really, yes really: my God is my everything”. “I ask my Jesus to be a guardian of all the tabernacles of the world, until the end of time”.

After she endured months of painful suffering, the Lord called Mother Maria Candida to Himself on the 12th June 1949. It was the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity.

From Bl. John Paul's Homily:

Maria Barba became a "new creature" who offered her entire life to God in Carmel, where she received the name Maria Candida of the Eucharist. She was an authentic mystic of the Eucharist; she made it the unifying centre of her entire life, following the Carmelite tradition and particularly the examples of St Teresa of Jesus and of St John of the Cross.

She fell so deeply in love with the Eucharistic Jesus that she felt a constant, burning desire to be a tireless apostle of the Eucharist. I am sure that Bl. Maria Candida is continuing to help the Church from Heaven, to assure the growth of her sense of wonder at and love for this supreme Mystery of our faith.

Happy Feast Day of Bl. Anne of St. Bartholomew!

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

   

(Icon Taken from http://aeternus.stblogs.com/?p=280)

Blessed Ann of Saint Bartholomew, 1549 – 1626

Shepherdess in her youth. Lay Carmelite at age 20 under the direction of Saint Teresa of Avila. Secretary to and close friend of Saint Teresa; Teresa died in Anne’s arms. Worked on the Carmelite reform in France. Prioress at Tours and Pontoise. Founded the Carmelite house in Antwerp in 1612. Wrote poetry, some of which has survived to today. Born: 1 October 1549 at Almeneral, Spain as Anne Garcia Died: 7 June 1626 at Antwerp, Belgium

Bl. Anne was the Secretary and travelling companion of St. Teresa of Avila, who died in her arms. She received many spiritual and mystical graces from a young age, and would later bring the Teresian Carmel to France and Antwerp.  

She overcame many obstacles to join Carmel. Once she arrived, she entered a darkness of the soul that left her confused and alone. She relates,

“Scarcely had I passed a few days in the Monastery of St. Joseph than it pleased our Lord to hid Himself from me and leave me in darkness. My desolation was great. I said to this Adorable Master: “how is this? Why have you abandoned me? If I did not know you, I would think you had deceived me, and if I had known you would go away I would not have come to the monastery.”
This abandonment lasted ruing the entire year of novitiate. At the end of the year I entered one day the hermitage of Christ at the Pillar to pray. Scarcely had I knelt down than I became supernaturally recollected, and our Lord appeared to me fastened to the cross. The first words He addressed to me were in reply to a desire I had to know whether the thirst He experienced on the cross was a natural thirst. he said to me: “my thirst was only a thirst for souls. From henceforth you must apply yourself to the consideration of this truth, and you must walk in a different path from that you have followed until now.” As if He has said to me, “child, no longer seek Me.” He then caused me to see all virtues in their perfection; they were exquisitely beautiful. I was the more impressed when I realized how far I was from their beauty and perfection. After having favored me with this light, the Divine Master disappeared, leaving my heart deeply wounded with His love, as well as by seeing Him on the cross so deeply wounded with the love of souls. This grace remained so indelibly impressed in my souls that it was with me day and night; my heart was with my Adorable Master, and my Adorable Master was in my heart; this was my usual state. Wherever I might be I experienced a zeal beyond expression for the salvation of souls and for the acquisition of those virtues that the Divine Master had shown me in the vision I have just related. He told me that it was by the way of the cross I would acquire them.”

Bl. Anne had the following conversation with Our Lord one day: It seems that she reminded the Lord that most of the young French women joining their community were from rich, noble families. She explained to him that she was only a shepherd. Within her heart, Blessed Anne heard the Lord's answer: "With straws I light my fire."

I will leave you with one her quotes: “Silence is precious; by keeping silence and knowing how to listen to God, the soul grows in wisdom and God teaches it what it cannot learn from men.”

The Movie Cristiada & its Connection with 3 Carmelite saints

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

Dear Ones -

There is a new film on our faith that many of you may know about, known as Cristiada which chronicles the Cristeros War (1926-1929).  This is about the Mexican faithful who stood firm against the Mexican government's attempt to secularize the country. I have included a trailer here.

In addition, I want to mention that our order has three martyrs that shed their blood during this tumultuous time. Here is a blurb about their inspirational lives:

Blessed Martyrs of Guadalajara

Bl. Maria Pilar of St. Francis Borgia
Bl. Teresa of the Child Jesus & St. John of the Cross
Bl. Maria Angeles of St. Joseph
Virgins - 1877, 1909, & 1905 - 1936 – Optional Memorial – July 24

On July 24th, 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, Communist troops murdered three Discalced Carmelite Nuns at the Monastery of Guadalajara, Spain. They were: Maria Pilar of St. Francis Borgia (age 58/born Jacoba Martinez Garcia - at Tarazona, Zaragoza on December 30, 1877), Teresa of the Child Jesus and of St. John of the Cross (age 27/born Eusebia Garcia y Garcia - at Mochales on March 5, 1909), and Maria Angeles of St. Joseph (age 31/born Marciana Valtierra Tordesillas - at Getafe on March 6, 1905).

After having given witness to their faith in Christ the King and offered their lives for the Church. They were the first fruits, of the many martyrs of the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939.

On July 22, with soldiers roaming the city, the eighteen nuns of the Monastery of St. Joseph scattered through the streets disguised in secular clothes. Some found shelter with Catholic families, and Sisters Maria of the Angels, Maria Pilar, and Teresa, along with two other nuns, hid in the basement of the Hibernia Hotel. Two days later, the five left the hotel, two going to a nearby boarding house, the three martyrs making their way up a street. A soldier eating lunch in a parked jeep recognized them and shouted to her companions, "Shoot them! They are nuns!"

Sr. Maria of the Angels died instantly when a bullet struck her in the heart. Sr. Maria Pilar, also hit, cried out, "Viva Cristo Rey (Long live Christ the King)!" The soldiers, furious at the pious exclamation, shot her repeatedly and slashed her with a knife. She died, having lost most of her blood, saying, "My God, pardon them. They don't know what they're doing."

Sr. Teresa was not harmed, and a soldier, pretend¬ing concern, gathered some of his com¬panions and led Teresa to a nearby cemetery, apparently intending to rape her. As they went, she spoke out fearlessly against them, and they angrily insisted she praise communism. To each of their commands she cried, "Viva Cristo Rey!" (“Long live Christ the King”). Told to walk a few steps ahead, she spread her arms in the form of a cross and was shot in the back.

Pope John Paul II beatified them in 1987

Prayer

Father, strength of the humble,
You sustained in martyrdom the virgins
Blessed Maria Pilar, Teresa and Maria Angelus.
As they willingly shed their blood for Christ the King, may we, through
their intercession, be faithful to You and to Your Church until death.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns
with You and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.